David Mirkin (born September 18, 1955) is an American feature film and television director, writer and producer. Mirkin grew up in
Philadelphia and intended to become an
electrical engineer, but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at
Loyola Marymount University. After graduating, he became a stand-up comedian, and then moved into television writing. He wrote for the sitcoms
Three's Company,
It's Garry Shandling's Show and
The Larry Sanders Show and served as
showrunner on the series
Newhart. After an unsuccessful attempt to remake the British series
The Young Ones, Mirkin created
Get a Life in 1990. The series starred comedian
Chris Elliott and ran for two seasons, despite a lack of support from many
Fox network executives, who disliked the show's dark and surreal humor. He moved on to create the sketch show
The Edge starring his then-partner, actress
Julie Brown.